1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to endoscope objective optical systems.
2. Description of Related Art
There are known wide-angle endoscope objective optical systems in the related art (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. HEI-2-293709, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. HEI-6-308381, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-354888, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2009-15119, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2009-223183). Wide-angle endoscopes are extremely effective for diagnosis of the interior of the body, such as the digestive system, because there is a need for preventing a lesion from being overlooked.
These endoscope objective optical systems include, in order from the object side, a concave lens, a convex lens, a stop, a convex lens, and a combined lens, which are well-corrected for aberrations.
However, depending on the application, there is also a need for endoscopes having objective optical systems with relatively narrow angles (about 85° or less).
One such example is endoscopes for surgical use. Surgical procedures in the body require narrow-angle endoscopes.
In surgery, the surgeon performs a suitable surgical procedure while observing the procedure site in the body through an endoscope, where there is a need for magnifying the working site to facilitate the procedure. Narrow-angle endoscopes allow the surgeon to view the subject at a higher magnification than wide-angle endoscopes.
If a wide-angle endoscope is used in surgery, the endoscope needs to be brought closer to the subject for a higher magnification, which decreases the working space and therefore makes it difficult to perform a surgical procedure. In addition, the surface of the objective lens is more easily contaminated, which makes the screen less clear.
Accordingly, objective optical systems with relatively narrow angles are effective for endoscopes for surgical use. When the endoscope objective optical systems disclosed in aforementioned related art, which are well-corrected for aberrations, are applied to such narrow-angle endoscope objective optical systems without any modification, they have a problem in that they do not allow simultaneous correction for field curvature and comatic aberration.